Frederick h



F.. H. C-UMMER. ASPHALT MIXING APPARATUS.-

' APPLICATION FILED DE C. I2. 1944. r 1,329,506.

Patented Feb 3, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Ill F. H. (SUMMER. ASPHALT MIXING APPARATUS.-APPLICATION FILED DEC. I2. 1914.

1,329,506, V Patent ed Feb. 3,1920.

; 7262 2255555.- I fizz/22202. A119."

F. H. CUMMER.

ASPHALT MIXING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 12. l9l4.

Patented Feb. 3,1920.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3 illNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK H. .CUMMER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE F. CUMMER &SON COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

ASPHALT-MIXING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 3, 1920.

Application filed December 12, 1914. Serial No. 876,958.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK H. Qumnnn, a citizen of the United States,reslding at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Asphalt MixingApparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates generally to mix ing apparatus and particularlyto that class of such devices utilized in treating and mix ing"materials in the production of asphalt for pavements.

More specifically the invention relates to a road apparatus forpreparing and mixing materials in the production of asphalt forpavements, and it comprises abody or frame mounted on lOttd'WllGGlS, aheating chamber supported upon the frame, a heater or furnace below saidchamber, a rotatable drier cylinder within said chamber and havinghooded hot air inlets, means for feeding sand or gravel or othermaterial to the receiving end of said cylinder, means for exhausting airfrom said cylinder, means for receiving the materials from saidcylinder, separating mechanism, suitable bins or troughs for receivingsaid materials, means for directing the materials to any of saiddevices, means for elevating the materials from the drier receiving binto the distributing means, means for weighing the materials as they passfrom the bins, a suitable batch mixer for receiving the materials,together with driving means arranged to be operated from a singledriving element, all of said parts be ing carried upon one bed andco-acting to make a self-contained road asphalt mixing plant.

The invention may be further briefly summarized as consisting in theconstruction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth in thefollowing description, drawings and claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of theapparatus; Fig. 2 is a top planyiew; Fig. 3 is a sectional view partlyin elevation showing the heating chamber with the drier cylinder; Fig. 4is a rear end elevation; Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view throughthe bins; Fig. 6 is a vertical section upon the line 6-6 of Fig. 5

and Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken nearthe bottom of the bins on theline 77 of Fig. 5.

In carrying out the invention any preferred form and construction ofparts may be employed so long as they possess the necessarycharacteristics, but I have shown one arrangement which is in accordancewith the'invention, and in such embodiment 1 represents a suitable framesupported upon front road wheels 2 at the forward end and rear roadwheels 3 at the rearend,the connection of these wheels being of anypreferred arrangement, except that the rear wheels are arranged at adistance from the rear so as to provide an overhanging frame portion.Mounted upon this frame is a heating chamber casing 4 having a fire box5 at the bottom which is adapted to be supplied with fuel through thefire door 6. This fire box 5 extends below the frame and is adapted tofurnish heat to the chamber formed in the heating chamber casing 4:. Theheating chamber casing is provided near the rear and at the bottom witha discharge hopper portion 7 ,shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, and infull lines in Fig. 3, and for a purpose which will later appear.Extending into this casing 4 is a drier drum 8 su-pported at the rearend by a suitable Web 9 secured within the cylinder and arranged upon ashort shaft portion 10 extending into a suitable journal box 11supported upon the frame 1. The forward end of the cylinder or the endprojecting beyond the casing 4 is supported by a steel tire 12 engagingsuitable rollers 13 carried by the frame. The periphery of the cylinder8 may be provided with hot air inlet openings 14 arranged spirally aboutthe periphery of said cylinder and each communicating with an inwardlyprojecting tubular member 15 having an elbow 16, the opening of whichextends toward the inlet of the cylinder or toward the left end, asshown in Fig. 3. The discharge from' each. of the openings of the elbow16 is baflied by a hood 17 supported by the elbow in any suitablemanner, so that heat may pass from thesehooded members into thecylinder, and sand and gravel may be prevented from entering theopenings of the elbows. Theextreme left or inlet end of the cylinder isprovided with a ring gear 18 having teeth 19 and an inwardly extendingflange'20 counter-bored at 21. The gear is also provided with a recess22 for receiving a retaining ring 23 held in place by suitable screws24. Between the ring 23 and the inwardly extending flange 20 is a ring25 forming a part of an exhaust housing 26.

in open communication with the cylinder. This exhaust housing isconnected to a blower 27 of any preferred type, the arran ement beingsuch that the operation of the lower causes air to be drawn from thehousing and from the cylinder. Extending into the housing is a supplychute 28 adapted to receive materials from a supply hopper 29 adapted tobe furnished with materialsgby a suitable elevator 30, preferably of thebucket type, or of any preferred structure. Meshing with the ring gear19 is a drivin inion 31 mounted upon a shaft 32 p'rovi with a pinion 33meshing with a pinion 34 upon the main operating shaft 35, supported- 1nbearings 36, 37 and 38 on the frame and extending throughout the-lengthof the frame on the outside of the casing 4. This driving shaft carrieson its forward end a bevehgear 39 meshing with a bevel pinion 4011 n atransverse driving shaft 41 mounted 1n bearings on the forward end ofthe frameand provided with a driving pulley 42 adapted to be driven inany suitable manner. Secured to the opposite end of the shaft 41 isanother pulley 43 adapted to drive a belt 44 leading to a pulley 45 onthe shaft of the rotor of the blower.

Mounted on the frame and arranged at the rear of the casing 4 is theelevator casing. 46 rectangular in form and having its lower endextending down below and receiving a discharge from the heated sandhopper 7. Rotatably mounted in the lower end of this casing is asuitable shaft 47 provided with a sprocket wheel 48 carr ing an elevatorchain. This elevator casing extends to a point above the casing 4 and isthere hinged to theupper elevator casing 49 adapted to swing fromvertical to horizontal position so as to allow head room above themachine when traveling under bridges and the like. In this upper portion49 of the elevator casing there is a shaft 50 provided within the casingwith a sprocket wheel 51. Upon the sprocket wheel 51 is an elevatorchain provided with buckets of any preferred type,

# these buckets being adapted to elevate the sand or other material fromthe bottom to a int where it will enter the mechanism to described. Theshaft 50 is also provided with a sprocket wheel 52 connected by a chain53, indicated by dotted lines, with a sprocket wheel 54 mounted upon theshaft 35. By means of this mechanism, the elevator chain is driven inthe proper direction. The buckets" on the chain 53v are adapted to emptyinto a chute 55 at the rear, and this chute is connected to a pair ofchutes 56 and 57 these chutes being formed with a common wall whichprojects to a point midway between the two walls of the chute 55 so thata shutter or door 58 may be pivoted at the end of the partition or walland may be thrown from one side to the other of the chute 55 so as todirect the materials either in the chute 56 or 57 as the case may be.The chute 56 communicates with the inlet end 59 of a cylindrical screenmember comprising a shaft 60 supported in suitable bearings 61 and 62 inthe ends of the housing 63. This shaft 60 is provided with suitablespiders 64 which support two cylindrical wire mesh sections 65 and 66,the former being made of small mesh wire, and the latter being made ofcoarse mesh. The end of the screen cylinder empties into a tailing chute67 provided with a discharge 68. The chute 57, the fine mesh screeningportion and the coarse mesh screening portion all discharge into asuitable recelving hopper, and this hopper comprises a casing 69. havinga transverse partition 70 coincident with the division between the fineand coarse mesh screening portions, and separating the reoeiving hopperinto two compartments 71 and 72, the compartment 72 being common to thefine mesh screening portion of the screen and to the chute 57. The lowerend of the hopper chamber 71 leads into a discharge chute 73 while thehopper chamber 72 communicates with a discharge chute 74 arranged intransverse alinement with the chute 73. Extending through both of thesechutes is a shaft 75 provided with a valve member 76 for closing thechute 73. At the end of this shaft is an operating handle 77 foroperating the valve. Surrounding the shaft 75 is a sleeve 78 extendingthrou h the hopper 74 and carrying a valve me r 79 for closing the chute74. This sleeve is provided with an operating handle 80. Both of thechutes 73 and 74 empty into a mixer hopper 81 supported beneath them,and this opper empties into a batch mixer 82 of any preferred type. Thebatch mixer is operated by a gear 83 mounted loosely upon the shaft 35and provided with a clutch member 84 adapted to be engaged by a clutchmember 85 loosely splined to the shaft 35. The shaft 35 is supportedbeyond. the clutch member 85 by a suitable bearing 86. Secured to theside of the receiving hopper is a rail 87 adapted to receive a trolley88 upon which is mounted a suitable scale comprising a balance 89', anda yoke 90 receiving the bucket 91.

I prefer to provide the heating chamber casing with a cover consistingof a plurality of transverse cast members each comprising a main bodyportion 92 of the width of the chamber and extending onto the upper ed eof each of the side walls. The main b0 y portion of each of thesemembers is provided with a flange 93 spaced from the lower face of themember and adapted to lapover onto a flange 94 of the correspondingmember. This lap-joint construction is carried out throughout the top ofthe chamber casing, and it serves as a means for covering the same andyet --permitting free access thereto by simply raising one or more ofthe members. .i The members are provided with suitable ribs 95 forstrengthening them.

Assuming that firehas been started in the fire box, and that material isready for feeding to the machine by the conveyer and further assumingthat power is transmitted to the driving pulley 42, it Will be seen thatas the sand is fed into the drier drum it will gradually move by reasonof the inclination of this drum or cylinder to the discharge end, fromwhenceit will pass into the hot sand receiving hopper 7, hot air beingdrawn through it by the blower 27. In the meantime, however, the bucketson the elevating chain of the hot sand elevator have elevated the sandto the top and caused it to discharge either directly into the chamber72 or into the fine mesh screen portion of the screen cylinder. Whenpassing into this cylinder the finer particles are sifted into thechamber 72 and some of the coarser particles into the chamber 75, thetailings being discharged from the end of the screening cylinder intothe tailing chute 67 from whence they pass out of the machine. When asufficient quantity of material has been collected in the chambers 71and 7 2 the proper quantities of these materials are discharged into thehop per 81 from whence they pass into the batch mixer. To this materialin the batch mixer is added the proper quantity of asphalt or othermaterial, Which is Weighed in the bucket 91 carried by the scale.

Having described my claim 1. In a road plant for mixing asphalt, arotatable drier cylinder, means for supplying heat thereto, a receivinghopper for receiving materials from said drum, a screen, a receivingbin, a chute leading to the screen, a chute leading to the bin, a commonsupply chute in connection With both of said chutes, means forcontrolling the passage of materials to either the screen chute or thebin chute, and means for feeding the materials from the receiving hopperto the common chute.

2. In a road plant for mixing asphalt, a rotatable drier cylinder, meansfor supplying heat thereto, a receiving hopper for receiving materialsfrom said drum, a screen, a receiving bin, a chute leading to thescreen, a chute leading to the bin, a common supply chute for both ofsaid chutes, a valve for controlling the passage of materials to eitherthe screen chute or the bin chute, and means invention, I

for feeding the materials from the receiving hopper to the common chute.

3. In a road plant for mixing asphalt, frame, supportingWllGGlSthGlGfOl, a casing mounted upon said frame and forming a heatingchamber, afire box for supplying heat to said casing, a rotatable :driercylinder With'hooded air inlets through its Wall and arranged in saidheating chamber, means for supplylng materials to said drier cylinder, abatch mlxer, and a bin structure for receiving materials before beingsup-' of materials to either one or the other of said chutes, means forconveying the materials from the drier to the main supply chute, andmeans for operating the several parts. at. In a road plant for mixingasphalt, frame, supporting Wheels therefor, a casing mounted-upon saidframe and forming a heating chamber, a fire box for supplying heat tosaid casing, a rotatable drier cylinder arranged in said heatingchamber, means for supplying materials to said drier cylinder, a batchmixer, and a bin structure for receiving materials before being suppliedto the mixer and comprising a bin housing, a screen arranged therein, atailing chute communicating With the screen for conveying away thetailings, a main supply for said bin structure, a screen chutecommunicating with the main supply chute, a valve for controlling thefioW of materials to either one or the other of said chutes, means forconveying the materials from the drier to the main supply chute, andmeans for operating the several parts. 7 V

5. In a road plant for mixing asphalt, a frame, supporting Wheelstherefor, a casing mounted upon said frame and forming a heatingchamber, a fire box for supplying heat to said casing, a drier arrangedin said heating chamber, means for supplyingmaterials to said drier, abatch mixer, and a bin structure for receiving materials before be- .ingsupplied to the mixer and comprising a bin housing and a screeningdevice arranged Within said housing and having a fine mesh portion and acoarse mesh portion, a partition in said housing extending from thedivision point of the coarse and fine mesh portions of said screen,separate discharge chutes for said two bin portions formed by thepartition, means for discharging materials into the screen and directlyinto the bin, means for controlling such discharge, means for conveyingthe materials from the drier bin Supplying means, and meens foroperating the severaibparts.

6. Mix'mgepparatus, eomprising an outer casing, a mtatabledrum supportedat one end of said and spaeed; fmm the: walls thereof and; yrevrdedtherein with .a series of internal air'mlet pipes communicating with:the space between said drum. and casin and openmg toward the oppositeend 0 the drum, and hoodsbeflling the inner ends of 10 eaid pipes andreversing direction of air flow therefrom.

In testimony whereof my signature in'presence oftveowitnesses.

FREDERICK 1 H. ,CUMM-ER. -Witneeses:

G. O.-EARQUHARSQN, (1-H. SHGTZBARGER.

